Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

Oni Screenshots

Oni is a new kind of third person action game that for the first time combines hand to hand combat and gunplay into a single, intense experience. Oni tells the story of Konoko, an elite cop and one-woman SWAT team whose approach to fighting crime is a devastating combination of rational calculation and fighting fury. She is an agent of the Tech Crimes Task Force - a woman whose tough exterior hides a soul haunted by dark secrets from her past called "oni" ("ghosts" or "demons" in Japanese). Oni's gameplay transports the player into the midst of an intense anime action thriller. Massive, futuristic cityscapes, indoor/outdoor environments and a huge variety of characters give it the sweeping scale of an adventure game, but the gameplay is pure action.

KEY FEATURES:

Revolutionary gameplay blend of hand-to-hand and weapons combat.

Easy to learn hand to hand fighting system with cool, lifelike and realistic moves.

Real-world level design

Each character possesses interpolated animations for fluid movement and responsive control.

Action game with hundreds of unique opponents each with multiple costume and equipment variations.

The arsenal of weapons includes pistols, rocket launchers, energy and projectile weapons.

Players are confronted with tactical challenges that they must figure out: storm the gates of the compound or sneak in the rear as opposed to tedious lever-pulling, platform jumping, or button-punching puzzles.

The Technology

Interpolation allows one animation sequence to blend smoothly and instantaneously into other ones. In other third-person games, for example, a "run" animation must progress through its whole sequence before a "jump" can be executed, creating a delay between the player hitting the jump key and the character actually jumping. With interpolation, a run can turn into a jump at any time, making the character instantly responsive to player commands. Konoko can spring forward, tuck into a dive roll, and then pop up into a flying kick, all in one smooth, continuous movement with no delays or "popping" between animations.

Radiosity lighting effects paint the setting with natural light by modeling the complex way in which light bounces off of surfaces and creates natural luminosity gradations.

Oni features high polygon-count models. They range from about 800 polys for some of the more basic characters to around 1200 for the more central ones, like Konoko. Not only does this give the characters a greater range of possible

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